My secondary goal was to see what I had from Devon. A week into her heat cycle, Devon suddenly stopped working. She didn't want any part of training agility or obedience at the kennel club or here at home. First we took a trip to the vet to make sure all was progressing fine with her heat cycle (which it was). Then she was seen by two different massage therapists. She was tight through the neck and shoulders, which was part of the problem. Finally, it was decided that this heat cycle was different than her past cycles and she just didn't want to work through this one. So she got two weeks off.
On Monday I noticed a change in Devon's attitude. I cannot tell you what was different about her, it just seemed like she was happier; and not so coincidentally she was finished with her heat cycle. Devon's change in attitude prompted our woods walk on Monday. On Tuesday, Devon pushed Page out of the way in the expen and wanted to work; so I worked her. She was absolutely back to normal wanting to work. She's trained obedience all week here at home, looking like she hasn't missed a beat. So my second goal for this training session was to see if Devon's training held up away from home, including agility.
Page's dogwalk
This was the first time I asked for full-height equipment away from home. I suspected Page wouldn't have any problems with the transition, but you never know. We started with the dogwalk. I asked Page to hop up on the downside of the ramp and give me her contact performance (2 on 2 off with a chin touch). She did this a couple of times without any problem.
Since she knew what was expected of her and had probably figured out which piece of equipment she was on, I turned her and asked for the complete dogwalk, and she performed it fine. The only difference in her performance at first was to walk or trot across the top of the dogwalk; she continued to canter the ups and downs.
Below is a clip from her second training session on the dogwalk. You'll see at the end of the clip one back foot slips as she gets to the top of the up ramp, but it didn't bother her. I gave her a third session on the dogwalk before we left just to make sure she was fine with the equipment, and she never showed any hesitation on it.
Page's teeter
Next we moved to the teeter. Again, I "introduced" it to her before asking for the full obstacle. I lowered the up end so she could grab it and bang it down and do her contact performance. After this, she turned and grabbed the board before it could go back up, banged it down and went up and over it (banging it again) and did the contact performance on the down side. After she was so confident doing this, I knew she was ready for the full piece of equipment.
Below is Page's second session on the teeter.
The A frame
Now if you're thinking, "Deb never mentioned she'd worked Page on the A frame," you would be right. The only time Page has ever seen an A frame (other than when she's watching other dogs run agility) was when she was about 10 weeks old. We put her over the contact equipment when she was very young when she knew her proprioception and knew her edges and ledges. This is done because we want to introduce them to everything they will do in their life (as appropriate) before they are 16 weeks old. If you look back at the clip, you'll see she was well supervised on her trips across the equipment.
You will also see by reading that clip that Page volunteered a full A frame before I could stop her. Well, yesterday after we finished the dogwalk and teeter, we were walking by the A frame and Page turned and took two acceleration steps toward it. The A Frame was lowered to 5 feet, and I had planned to start her on an even lower A frame and work her contacts. However, if she wanted to volunteer it, I wasn't going to stop her.
I said, "You want to run it?" And took a couple of steps that way, which was all she needed. In a flash Page was up and over the A frame no problem! As her Aunt Marcy said, "See wood, get rewards!" Yes, this girl has had lots of rewards for contacts lately and since she's so confident, she was just thrilled to find something else she might get treats for!
Below is her second session on the A frame. As you can see her contact performance transfered over without a problem. I didn't even have the plastic runners I've been using to keep her straight since I hadn't planned on her going over the A frame the first time. This proved to me she no longer needed those runners, so I've removed them totally now.
Page's jumping
I just started Page jumping in the middle of the week. This was only her forth day of jumping, so I knew I was pushing it a little to do it in a new place. We need more work and confidence in her job, because Page does like to limbo under the bar. The problem is she's so stinking flexible she usually doesn't touch the bar when she limbos! Below is her jumping and limboing!
In all I couldn't be more pleased with what Page gave me yesterday. She was in a familiar location but had never worked on the contact equipment in this building. Her contact performance was solid, even on a contact she'd never done before. On the dogwalk and the A frame she was consistently hitting the last slat or below with her rear feet. She's a little higher up on the teeter, but that's ok for controlling the board.
Her jumping could use work, but I knew that. In addition, she was doing very nice sends to a curved dark tunnel and looking for me on the exit. She also did a lot of nice table work. Page does need work on staying in position as I move when she's on the table. I've taught her an automatic down on the table, just as I did Devon. I decided to move forward with the automatic down even though there are agility rule changes under consideration with AKC that call for a positionless table. The automatic down will still be needed in USDAA if I trial her there, and it's a good thing for AKC even if it's just to keep her on the table regardless of position.
I'll probably put her over the dogwalk one more time in my building and then take it down. The building just isn't functional with the dogwalk up, and I need more room to train obedience with Devon. From here forward, I'll train contacts at the kennel club when I can until we get rid of this snow and I can get the contacts outside.
And now for Devon
Devon had a fantastic day of training. I warmed her up really well before we started working. I only asked for 3 obstacles in sequence at first, and she was very confident. Her weaves looked amazing, and I could hear her digging with her rear legs to power herself through them. One thing I've realized some time back and confirmed yesterday is that Devon works better for toys in agility than treats. I always carry treats with me, but she really enjoys the toys more.
We took a break and let someone else use the equipment while I worked Devon in obedience. Her heeling skills, as well as fronts and finishes, are really looking incredibly sharp. Devon makes me enjoy working obedience because she loves it so much.
To end the day, I wanted to get some video of Devon's weaves. For the second set, she ran a line of three jumps and the tire to get speed entering the weaves. I was really happy with how far in front of me she was and how much distance I got on the weaves. And yes, that's Page you hear in the background protesting it wasn't her out in the ring!
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